Always used liquid chlorine but can't find any locally - Ideas?

[SolarDave]

I've been a liquid chlorine user from day one of our pool commissioning about three years ago whether it be from Home Depot, Walmart, my pool contractor or a local pool cleaner guy who sold from his supply on the side. This time of year up here in the upper Mojave Desert it takes about 1/2 - 1 gallon of 10% per day to keep my chlorine above 2 PPM by the time I check it the next day, depending on how long the retractable pool cover was open for, what time of day and how many people were enjoying it. Recently all supplies of 10%+ liquid chlorine have gone dry (I'm not ready to use 6% or less bleach as I've found it to generally be weaker than advertised and very expensive in recent years) so I've had to resort to what I could find to keep my pool up and running which has been cal hypo for the past few days and I went ahead and purchased a bucket of trichlor today just to have something available.

I generally keep about 30-40 PPM of CYA in my pool (it disappears over the course of a few months and I have to add it a few times per year) so I'd like to switch to trichlor tablets for the time being but I'm trying to think of a good way to dispense of the trichlor without having to leave my pool cover off or install some sort of inline chlorine dispenser since this is hopefully only a temporary situation. Possible solution would be to anchor a floating chlorine dispenser on a rope from the bottom of the pool so the dispenser wouldn't be right up against the pool cover fabric but then I've got to shorten up the hose on my Hayward Goby pool vacuum so it doesn't get tangled up with my rig. I could use something like this to handle chlorination while gone on vacation even after liquid chlorine supplies (hopefully) return to normal.

Any thoughts?

 

[Bperry]

I've been a liquid chlorine user from day one of our pool commissioning about three years ago whether it be from Home Depot, Walmart, my pool contractor or a local pool cleaner guy who sold from his supply on the side. This time of year up here in the upper Mojave Desert it takes about 1/2 - 1 gallon of 10% per day to keep my chlorine above 2 PPM by the time I check it the next day, depending on how long the retractable pool cover was open for, what time of day and how many people were enjoying it. Recently all supplies of 10%+ liquid chlorine have gone dry (I'm not ready to use 6% or less bleach as I've found it to generally be weaker than advertised and very expensive in recent years) so I've had to resort to what I could find to keep my pool up and running which has been cal hypo for the past few days and I went ahead and purchased a bucket of trichlor today just to have something available.

I generally keep about 30-40 PPM of CYA in my pool (it disappears over the course of a few months and I have to add it a few times per year) so I'd like to switch to trichlor tablets for the time being but I'm trying to think of a good way to dispense of the trichlor without having to leave my pool cover off or install some sort of inline chlorine dispenser since this is hopefully only a temporary situation. Possible solution would be to anchor a floating chlorine dispenser on a rope from the bottom of the pool so the dispenser wouldn't be right up against the pool cover fabric but then I've got to shorten up the hose on my Hayward Goby pool vacuum so it doesn't get tangled up with my rig. I could use something like this to handle chlorination while gone on vacation even after liquid chlorine supplies (hopefully) return to normal.

Any thoughts?

I’d say give it a try. Just gotta make sure the floater doesn’t get stuck somewhere where the acidic solution can bleach or discolor anything. Find a way to keep it floating in the center of the water.

Could also tie it into the center of a small inner-tube so the tube keeps your cover off of it and the tube would prevent it from getting too close to a wall.


but watch out for the CYA levels or you’ll be draining water to fix it.

 

[Pauls234]

When I go on vacation I worry about leaving a floater in because what happens if it just sits against the liner when pump is off? To prevent this I drilled a hole on the the top of the floater so I could hook in a short bungee cord and then hooked the other end to the handle of a bleach bottle filled with quickrete and placed it well away from the liner but still in path of circulation. I use a short enough cord that it keeps the floater maybe 3 feet off the bottom.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Install a SWG. I know the initial investment is hard to swallow, but it will pay for itself.

 

[Newdude]

know the initial investment is hard to swallow, but it will pay for itself

+1. The break even point is about 12k-15k gallons. You are well over that and into the long term savings category. Plus no shopping around unsuccessfully or lugging jugs.

 

[Bperry]

+2 on the SWCG.

 

[setsailsoon]

Solar,

Welcome to TFP! You can use trichlor if you watch the CYA level and drain as needed to stay within TFP recommendations. My brother did this for years on his rather large pool and the jug-lugging was impractical for him. His wife doesn't like salt pools so that was his only choice. Speaking of recommendations 2 ppm is flirting with danger when hot sun and it's not enough when CYA is on the high end of your range.FC/CYA Levels. I try to run with minimum at low end of the FC range not the minimum. Lastly, I strongly recommend you consider a salt pool. Everybody I know loves it and never goes back.

I hope this helps.

Chris

 

[texasAUtiger]

Tangential to your original question, but recently I was eating through LC pretty quickly and OCLT repeatedly showed it wasn't due to algae. I figured the sun was cooking it off, so I adjusted my CYA from 30 to 50 and that has helped me retain my FC levels much better with less daily LC additions.

 

[Leebo]

You briefly mentioned CalHypo which leads me to the question, why is your current Calcium level?

Unable to Find Bleach - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[SolarDave]

When I go on vacation I worry about leaving a floater in because what happens if it just sits against the liner when pump is off? To prevent this I drilled a hole on the the top of the floater so I could hook in a short bungee cord and then hooked the other end to the handle of a bleach bottle filled with quickrete and placed it well away from the liner but still in path of circulation. I use a short enough cord that it keeps the floater maybe 3 feet off the bottom.

That’s really close to what I was thinking I might do, down to using an old LC container!

 

[SolarDave]

You briefly mentioned CalHypo which leads me to the question, why is your current Calcium level?

Unable to Find Bleach - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Calcium isn’t something I regularly test for since I’ve never used shock in my pool. I usually test it at the beginning of the season just to have a baseline for the chemical calculations. I’ll check my log and probably give it another test. pH, chlorine get tested anytime I open the pool and CYA from time to time as I became aware that it actually gets consumed contrary to my pool builder’s advice which was that it isn’t consumed, only lost to splash out, etc. (which is observably not true).

 

[PoolStored]

L&M Lumber in Lake Isabella has 10% LC, expensive at $5.99, but available.

Walmart in Ridgecrest is showing bleach available...just get splashless and without softeners...JUST BLEACH.

 

[SolarDave]

Solar,

Welcome to TFP! You can use trichlor if you watch the CYA level and drain as needed to stay within TFP recommendations. My brother did this for years on his rather large pool and the jug-lugging was impractical for him. His wife doesn't like salt pools so that was his only choice. Speaking of recommendations 2 ppm is flirting with danger when hot sun and it's not enough when CYA is on the high end of your range.FC/CYA Levels. I try to run with minimum at low end of the FC range not the minimum. Lastly, I strongly recommend you consider a salt pool. Everybody I know loves it and never goes back.

I hope this helps.

Chris

It’s likely I average CYA in the ~20-30 range over the long term as I aim for 30-40 when I add it to the skimmer and once there I may not test it for a month or so. My pool could likely tolerate some extra stabilizer from the 3” tabs before it would build up to any level of real concern if using it temporarily.

With regard to SWG it was definitely not due to cost that I didn’t go with it in the first place. Between pool construction and all of the ancillary details that go along with it I’d estimate we’re close to $100k at this point. My installer had a preference for cartridge filters (which I’m happy with) and regular chlorination (which has led me to chlorine dependence which wasn’t a big issue until now). He said he’s seen some issues with the cover hardware and surrounding decking on salt pools. My pool is the minimum allowed 5’ from my home and my property block wall so he was concerned with salt residue from splash out with our four children and the dozens of other children we have over each month to use the pool.

With all that’s going on I’m now definitely more open to not being dependent on LC to keep my pool clean. I also like the idea of keeping chlorination up while we’re out of town without having to have someone come and dump a jug of LC in every couple of days. Are my concerns about corrosion of the pool cover hardware or to a lesser extent, my hardscape next to the pool area unfounded or at least small enough to make the SWG a clear choice?

Thanks to everyone for the responses you’ve already provided. It’s a blessing to have a pool of more experienced folks to gather wisdom and experience from!

 

[Newdude]

Are my concerns about corrosion of the pool cover hardware or to a lesser extent, my hardscape next to the pool area unfounded or at least small enough to make the SWG a clear choice

Yup. Poor quality or soft materials erode from the elements, regardless of the pool chlorination type. Come visit me and I’ll show you tons of brick buildings 10 ft from the seawater still standing unfazed 100 years later, at 10X the salt level of the pool.

Thanks to everyone for the responses you’ve already provided. It’s a blessing to have a pool of more experienced folks to gather wisdom and experience from!

Ain’t it ? You bring stuff to the table too. With each member the collective hive gets stronger. Glad to have ya.

 

[nobody291]

he was concerned with salt residue from splash out with our four children

Keep in mind that you already have a salt pool, it's just a matter of concentration. I added a SWG a few months ago, and my pool's salt level was already at 2600 ppm on my first test, before adding any bags of salt. I believe that salt was mostly from liquid chlorine, with the rest from fill water and a little calcium chloride added (I can't think of where else it would've come from). If concern for salt residue is holding you back from installing a SWG, I would test your water to see what your salt level is now, it might not be too far from the concentration needed.

 

[setsailsoon]

Are my concerns about corrosion of the pool cover hardware or to a lesser extent, my hardscape next to the pool area unfounded or at least small enough to make the SWG a clear choice?

Dave, in a word yes your concerns are unfounded. Much of the pool building community is getting up to speed with salt but sadly a lot are still in the dark ages - great builders but just not great on maintenance chemistry. If you maintain TFP recommendations for a salt pool you shouldn't have any issues. I certainly didn't and many, many here don't. We recommend running slightly low (0 to -.2) CSI. This is what I did; it was very easy and I had absolutely no issues into year 3. Even my swg stayed at the initial setting of 40% power and still had no signs of deposits, hardscape issues, nor FC production problems. And boy! You are really on easy street when it comes to pool maintenance. It really became boring and very low cost with a VS pump. I still tested often just to be absolutely sure it didn't get away from me but it never did. Between salt and my robot pool was almost all about enjoyment and hardly any effort at all to keep it perfect.

I hope this helps.

Chris

 

[Selenap]

We don’t have an issue with chlorine here but I do get a couple of bags of cal hypo when I go to Lowe’s just for emergency. I don’t have much calcium in my pool, I get a lot of rain too, so adding it isn’t an issue for me. The pool math of course tells you the effects of adding. Calcium does seem to be the one thing that you can go quite high with before you run into trouble though.

 

[SolarDave]

The point regarding my pool effectively already being a salt pool is probably pretty close. I’d estimate I have to add 2 PPM of chlorine per day during the pool season (April through the end of October roughly) so that’s over 400 PPM for three years plus the off season addition which is probably half of that so I could already be in the 1800 PPM range. I might have my old Taylor salt test from when we had a small above ground a number of years ago tree had I had a salt generator for but the test agent ought to be way out of date. Either way I could be in to the lower end of SWG with regard to salt in my pool in the next year or so anyway without a partial or full changeout.

I’m going to post what my builder had to say about my recent questions about going over to salt:
“Morning. Floater is the only good easy way to administer chlorine tablets. Still not a great choice. I would stay away form salt if it was me. Salt is corrosive. The American Concrete Association states that concrete in contact with salt water needs to be 5,000 psi or better. We shot your pool with 4000 psi and it could be 5000 after it cured but there’s no guarantee. (Most pool contractors shoot their pools around 2,500-3,000 psi for reference). I do have liquid if you need it but I’m sure Cal Sun also has it as well.”


“I have seen many problems (even in his pools) with salt. Industry leaders don’t promote salt either. You’ll have more fun keeping your water chemistry in check as well and it doesn’t work in the winter time. You’ll need to install some type of automation so that the pump and salt system are linked together so that the salt can’t run when the pump isn’t on.
I’m honestly not sure on the salt.
I don’t mean to sound so negative, but it’s what it is. I made a comment on a Facebook group and about the dangers of salt systems. Many people were laughing at me telling me I don’t know what I’m talking about. One of the world’s leading (no exaggeration) pool builder commented on my comment agreeing with me. If that counts for anything.”

 

[setsailsoon]

There has been so much debate over this that any quote can be taken out of context. Concrete pools are not exposed to sea water levels of salt. Most of the articles I could find when I researched this topic for myself were about concrete construction that refers to concrete in seawater that is used for piling design of docks. Pools are nothing like this. In fact they are only exposed to about 10% of the level in sea water. And most importantly, the concrete is not really exposed to pool water. The plaster is. Plaster inside your pool seals the concrete from pool water because concrete is too porous to hold water. Here's a quote from one of the most used pool plaster's website (Pebble Tec). If any entity would have a reason to be truthful it would be the company that has to warranty the material. You can find this quote and a truthful explanation of the pros and con's here.

"There are many misconceptions when it comes to the benefits of saltwater and chlorine pools. The good news —both are perfectly safe for your pebble pool finish! The three main factors that help individuals decide on which option is best are maintenance level, price, and physical side effects. With a little research, you can find the best option for you and your family."

 

[Bperry]

You’ll need to install some type of automation so that the pump and salt system are linked together so that the salt can’t run when the pump isn’t on.

That’s true but the “automation” is a flow switch that comes with most salt systems. Sounds more complicated than it is.